Jack Fry's in The Highlands is a Louisville tradition and highly regarded local eatery. The good news just keeps coming. National organizations are starting to realizes all the great stuff Louisville has to offer. This week it's Zagat naming Louisville one of The 8 Best Foodie Getaways Around the World. High praise indeed! Here's what the piece had to say about our city. 3. Louisville, KY What to eat: This is Bourbon Country y’all. In Louisville, you’ll find an impressive amount of top-notch restaurants featuring both rustic and city-fied food...to pair with your brown spirits o

Coming in at #6 Louisville joins other top locations as great vacation destinations. Here's what TripAdvisor had to say about our great city. 6. Louisville, Kentucky In addition to equestrian endeavors and bluegrass roots, Louisville boasts a range of exciting attractions the whole family can enjoy. Baseball fans will love the Louisville Slugger Museum, a celebration of the sport's legends. Follow this link to see TripAdvisor's entire lists of destinations on the rise for 2012.

Source: Trulia American Dream survey Under the heading Optimistic Signs of Long-Term Housing Demand comes this infographic that shows Home Ownership leads the with way with a 57% to the question, "What do you think is the best long-term investment?" This beating 401k, other retirment planns, even investing in gold. Makes sense to me!

The time it will take to repair the Sherman Minton Bridge will help home sellers in Kentucky while hurting those in Indiana. The big news in Louisville these days is the shutdown of the Sherman Minton Bridge, or what a creative mind termed Shermageddon. You see, because the politicians have feuded with East End money for literally decades about building the obviously logical East End bridge, the importance of the currently over burdened bridges has gone up. Way up! Repairing the bridge is going to take some time. ("Some" is a nicely ambiguous word, right?) Engineers still haven't com

Yesterday, Freddie Mac issued a press release called August 2011 U. S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook. I've excerpted primary message below. MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) released today its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for August showing that despite the recent ups and downs in the capital markets the likelihood of an extended period of both relatively low short- and long-term interest rates is helpful news for the housing market's recovery as it continues to struggle. Outlook Highlights Employment was up 117,000, the best show

The Louisville Home Builders Association is putting on a Tour of Remodeled Homes which starts today. From noon to 6pm on August 13th and 14th, the tour price is $10 with children 6 and under free. For more information and a list of all the paricipating homes and builders, visit the HBAL website.

Norton Commons is a great setting for a home show! The people came out in droves to see Louisville's latest new home designs. Homearama is my favorite Louisville real estate event of the year. Only thing better would be a surprise visit from HGTV to re-design a room in my house! This year's Homearama took place in Norton Commons, a great site for such an event. One of the largest on record, there are 21 homes all vying for your vote! In this summer heat, you'll need a TALL glass of lemonade to make it through them all before you pass out. We made it through and out alive to tell th

It's not just the weather that's raising the temperature at Norton Commons. Design trends are on fire! Homearama is in full swing and we wanted to bring the latest in Louisville interior design. In addition to the requisite fleur de lys everywhere (my favorite of which was a bathroom wall stencil), we couldn't help but notice that wallpaper is making a big comeback. Look for animals motifs on that wallpaper, as well as on bedding, pillows and art/accessories. Lions and monkeys and cows, oh my! Birds, butterflies and ladybugs are favorites too. These prints tie in perfectly with

Some great neighborhoods cost more than others but Louisville has a large number of bargain priced homes across the city. eHow.com put together a list of their five favorite cities for a low cost of living and guess who made the list? Louisville, of course! Here's what they had to say about our fair city. With all the glamour associated with horse racing in Kentucky, Louisville still ranks as one of the best places to live with a low cost of living. According to Kiplinger, housing costs are well below the national average and play a big role in the city's affordability. This site also

Homes aren't selling but that doesn't mean that some savvy investors couldn't take advantage of the situation. I'm sure we've all heard about The Great Depression. It was a horrible time, not only in our nation's history but throughout the world. Prices went crazy and suffering was the norm. But did you know this, home prices dropped 31% during The Great Depression. Guess how much home prices have dropped in the United States from the highes of 2006? 33%. Not the best time to be selling your home, right? This author believes the double-dip recession is already here: Housing's Lat

The current issue of Parenting Magazine lists some of their top cities to raise a family and Louisville made the list! Louisville, KY came in at #10. At the top of the list was Washington, D.C. Factors such as schools, parks, entertainment and affordable housing went into their rankings. Parenting Magazine cited affordable housing, good schools, a large number of parks and a great entertainment scene as criteria for cities to make the list. The list won't be available online just yet but is in the July issue now on newsstands.

Parents looking to keep their children safe need to look no further than Louisville, KY. More great news for our city! Sperling's has rated Louisville, KY the third safest for families with young children. How do their rankings work? I wondered the same thing myself. Here's what they evaluate: 25 criteria encompassing child-focused, safety-oriented behaviors and regulatory best practices filtered out cities with the highest crime rates considered air quality, incidence of child pedestrian accidents, injuries and drowning also focused on accessibility to hospitals; response ti

The question I'm posed most often in my daily travels is, "When will the Louisville real estate market rebound?" Here at Insider Louisville we like to delve a little deeper and take a look behind "the curtain" and see what we can find. Many were surprised when we brought you salary estimates for local real estate agents. Using these numbers, we can estimate that the average real estate agent in Louisville made $27,364 before taxes and expenses. People I spoke with were astounded. I think most readers were also surprised to learn about unemployment owning the key role in Louisville hom

When in Louisville, dress like a Louisvillian! Make sure to visit Elizabeth's Timeless Attire. What a great name for shop! Design*Sponge, the best design blog evah, has just posted its Louisville City Guide! Among the hot spots are places for your last minute Derby needs for your home, yourself and for entertaining out of town guests. For those last minute Derby party accessories or hostess gifts, try Scout and Hudson Home, both on Market St., or 2023 on Frankfort Ave. I will admit my bias to Hudson Home, my friend Andrew is the owner, and he has an amazing collection of "green" fu

One of the reported 34,246 Subway restaurants in 95 countries. Via street view on Google Maps, this one happens to be in Springhurst in the East End of Louisville. Always on the lookout to see how Louisville stacks up to our competition. Today I see The Daily Beast ranked our nation's cities by their concentration of fast food restaurants. While it's nice to see our city being mentioned as a "winner," I'm not sure this is a category that's good for us, if you catch my meaning. Here are the Top 5 cities. Orlando, FL: 196.3/per 100k. Most: Subway Louisville, KY: 147.1/per 100k

Both of these Louisville homes are from the same part of town and are currently for sale in the same price range. Which selection makes the tax assessment news story sound more dire? Leave it to the news folks to make everything sound negative. Ugh. WDRB published a story on Friday with the title, How much is Jefferson County real estate worth? Not too bad. At least the title isn't misleading, or worse, leading in the wrong direction. The reason I'm highlighting this story is because once you arrive at the Web page you're greeted with a large photo of a boarded up home. Then the o

Below you'll find our monthly reports for the following Louisville housing markets. These charts display Louisville home sales and Louisville median home values with a trend line. Each chart relates directly to an "area" as defined by the Louisville MLS. 3/6/2011 - A variety of factors go into both home values and home sales here in Louisville, KY. As I chart these monthly market reports, it's occurred to me that one factor I had not considered is something that effects the entire housing market—the number and average costs of new construction. New home builders build what the mar

Looking for those hard to find items? How about a 20-foot concrete giraffe? The Home and Garden Show has one! Still thinking about the Home & Garden Show and how great it was to learn about some of the good things Louisville area businesses are doing. I love our unique, local options! And did you know that for every $100 you spend at a local business, $45 stays here in our community! So you're not only supporting what makes Louisville one of a kind, but also keeping jobs and conserving energy and resources. For example, Tre and I had a fun chat with Andrew from Shine Contracting a

The Home & Garden Show just started today and runs through Sunday! If you go, here are a few things you don't want to miss! Make sure to visit PPG Porter Paints and see the new Louisville Color Collection! Color Consultant Tracy Burbrink says "These colors are in honor of our 90th anniversary, and are exclusive to Louisville only!" I was also fascinated with the colors and styles of Cambria stone counter tops. You have to see these! They are all natural, food safe and American made! And don't forget the freebies - I got a yardstick, had my rings cleaned, and was given

The Kentucky Fairgrounds and Exposition Center is home to the Louisville Home Garden and Remodeling Show, March 11-13. Amid the dozens of bathtup overlay companies, tool shed builders and assorted specialty sales companies (need a new cell phone case?) you'll find some intriguing booths at this year's Louisville Home Garden and Remodeling show which starts today. I'll have more in-depth stories in the next several weeks but a few companies that caught my eye might be interest to you as well. Classic Metal Roofing Systems of Kentuckian: If you're planning to stay in your current ho